


An Attempt at Mistletoe Magic

by whisperingmusic



Category: Free!
Genre: Christmas Party, Fluff, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 11:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5538353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperingmusic/pseuds/whisperingmusic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The old members of the Iwatobi and Samezuka swim teams, now in college, meet up for their yearly Christmas reunion party, hosted by Rei and Nagisa. </p><p>When Nagisa attempts to be romantic in front of all their friends, will Rei wilt into a ball of embarrassment or rise to meet the challenge?</p><p>Rated T for Rin's slight potty mouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Attempt at Mistletoe Magic

**Author's Note:**

> It's sadly half an hour after Christmas ended, but I wrote this an hour ago and edited instead of sleeping, so that has to count for something XD 
> 
> Merry late-Christmas, and enjoy the insane amount of fluff this fic is composed of!

“Rin-chan! Help me over here!”

Rin grumbled as he slowly trudged over to where Nagisa sat surrounded by messy Christmas garlands, paper stars and a large “Merry Christmas!” banner printed in festive lettering. This year the old Iwatobi and Samezuka swim teams had entrusted their annual Christmas day reunion party to Nagisa and Rei since the two already lived together in an apartment in Tokyo.

Rin expected Nagisa to start throwing long bunches of garland at him, but instead Nagisa carefully handed him a little branch of mistletoe.

“Now, Rin, you have to help me with my master plan. Even though me and Rei have been dating for almost three years now, I’ve never been able to catch him under the mistletoe. Three years I’ve lasted without a mistletoe kiss, Rin! You’ve gotta help me change that this year!”

“Why me? Remember what happened last time I tried to help you with your pathetic attempts at romance?” Rin shuddered as he remembered helping the blonde set up the “absolute perfect underwater kiss” by challenging Rei to see who could hold their breath the longest.

“Rei didn’t actually drown though! He was just shocked at my perfect romancing skills! And don’t tell me you wouldn’t wanna steal a kiss from Ai-chan under the mistletoe,” Nagisa laughed.

“Yea, well, that’s different! I haven’t tried to kill Ai with embarrassment,” Rin said as he lightly hit Nagisa upside the head. “So where do you want this mistletoe?”

**\---**

Once the two finished setting up the decorations and bringing snacks out to the small apartment’s living room, they sat on the couch, talking and waiting for their friends to arrive and for Rei to return with his special brand of egg nog that Nagisa “forgot” to buy earlier that day.

Makoto and Haru arrived first, bringing presents, a platter of cheese and crackers and a small bowl of mackerel-flavored chip dip. By the time Momo and Nitori arrived, Christmas tunes were blasting and the apartment smelled like Nagisa’s “famous” gingerbread cookies.

“Oi, Nagisa, how long does it take Rei to go to the effing store?” Rin asked, surprised that it had been over three hours since Rei had left.

“Not this long, and he wouldn’t have gotten lost like Sou-chan…hey, Ai-chan, where is Sou-chan anyways? Wasn’t he gonna take the same train that you and Momo-chan took?” Nagisa asked.

“W-well,” Nitori said, “he told me earlier that he was going take a slightly later train. He said something about stopping by the store to buy some drinks.”

Nitori barely finished his explanation when Rei and a slightly frustrated Sousuke showed up. Rin immediately burst out laughing at Sousuke’s expression.  
“You got lost, didn’t you Sousuke? Huh? Even though you were supposed to follow Ai and Momo so you wouldn’t get lost…oh man, this is too good,” Rin said, nearly spilling his drink as he continued laughing. Even Haru was practically snickering behind his hand in his protected spot beside Makoto. Rei tried, and failed, to disguise his slight laughs as coughs behind a fist, which earned him a glare from Sousuke.

Now that everyone was there, Nagisa skipped over to his boyfriend and grabbed the bag of egg nog, proclaiming, “Snack time, everyone!”

Nagisa walked through the open archway to the kitchen and under the purposefully-placed mistletoe, setting the egg nog on the counter and giving himself a few seconds to prepare the next phase of his plan: catch Rei under the mistletoe.

When he went back to the living room, though, Nagisa saw everyone except Rei talking and catching up. Rei wasn’t even in the living room! Nagisa quickly snuck over to Rin and poked him in the side, earning him a yelp and glare from Rin and laughs from Nitori and Sousuke.

“What the hell do you want?!” Rin hissed at Nagisa.

“Do you know where Rei went? I need to catch him und—”

“He forgot to change into his ‘exceptionally beautiful’ or whatever Christmas sweater and ran off to get it,” Sousuke interrupted.

“He left a few minutes ago, though,” Rin added, “so he better be back soo—oh my GOD, you’re kidding me, right?”

Confused at the you’re-seriously-kidding-me-right-now expression Rin had, Nagisa turned toward the hallway that led to his and Rei’s bedroom, only to burst into laughter with the rest of his friends.

Rei stood at the entrance to the hallway, wearing the same outfit as earlier, but this time he had on a God-awful red and green Christmas sweater with little purple butterflies that seemed to have been sewn on haphazardly. Originally, Rei was doing his silly little triumphant pose with his hands on his hips and his chest slightly pushed out, eyes closed, chin tilted up and smirking proudly, but once everyone was laughing, he reverted to the sputtering dork that Nagisa absolutely adored.

“What?!” Rei exclaimed, flustered and exasperated at the response he certainly did not expect. “None of you have obviously seen a beautiful work of art before now! I’ll have you know I found this in the most respectable store weeks ago and—”

A still-laughing Nagisa walked over to Rei, taking him by the hand and tugging him toward the kitchen, momentarily forgetting his entire master plan until he was laughing and hugging a still-upset Rei in the safety of their little kitchen.

“O-oh, my GOD, R-Rei-chan, w-w-where did you even get that?!” Nagisa asked between laughs, still hugging Rei and laughing into his chest. After a few seconds Rei started laughing with Nagisa, fueling the blonde’s laughter even more. It took them a few more minutes to fully calm down, and when they did, Rei stepped back from Nagisa, his hands on the blonde’s hips and a fond smile stretching across his face. They stood there together, in their tiny kitchen in their tiny apartment, their friends in the next room, and Nagisa was so very tempted to just pull Rei’s face down and forget about the silly mistletoe kiss, but he couldn’t react fast enough before Makoto walked into the kitchen and snagged Rei.

“Hey, Rei, how have your university classes been? You’re studying, uh…science, right?” Makoto asked politely.

“Well, actually…” Rei started, preparing to launch into a full-blown speech about how he’s studying to become a chemistry lab assistant and how “the theories and calculations that go into chemistry are simply beautiful,” as Rei always said.

Frustrated over his missed opportunity, Nagisa left the kitchen with slumped shoulders and wandered over to Rin, who sat next to Nitori on the couch and was watching Haru and Sousuke attempt some charade game. As he turned to ask if Nagisa wanted to join the game, Rin noticed the slight pout Nagisa was wearing and instantly switched to big brother mode.

“Hey, what’s wrong, kid? Where’s the butterfly?” Nagisa flopped onto the back of Rin’s seat, nearly smacking Rin with his own head as Rin turned to face the blonde.

“He’s talking to Makoto about school, which is soooo booooooring,” Nagisa said, rolling his eyes slowly and dramatically as he emphasized how boring school still was.

“Wow, talk about a real cockblock, eh?” Rin sympathized, producing a giggle from Nagisa. “Well, what are you gonna do about it?”

“I don’t knoooow,” Nagisa whined as he slid down the back of the couch even more. At this point Rin had to practically stand to see his friend moping behind the couch. “I mean, I can’t get any more obvious than this, right?”

That gave Rin an idea. “Well, you can always try the passive-aggressive route,” Rin grinned mischievously as Nagisa raised an eyebrow curiously, turning back around to hear Rin’s plan.

**\---**

Rei and Makoto had long since switched the conversation to how Makoto and Haru were doing living together on the other side of Tokyo, both in their third years of university.

“Haru told me when we were still living in the dorms that whenever we moved in together, we weren’t getting any cats. But I found little Mackerel meowing in an alleyway a few weeks ago, and it was just so cold that I had to bring her home!” Makoto explained, gesturing expressively throughout. Rei couldn’t help but laugh not only at the kitten’s name but also because it was so typical for Makoto to take care of stray cats and simply bring them home.

“When I got back to our apartment and opened the door, Haru nearly shut the door in my face! Now he loves her, but it sure took a while!” Makoto laughed, remembering Haru’s expression switching from surprise to exasperation to determination as their apartment door quickly closed. Rei was just about to ask for more details about Mackerel when Nagisa ran past Makoto and Rei, completely set on something that Rei figured could not be good.

“Nagisa-kun? What are you…?” Rei asked as he and Makoto watched Nagisa rifle through the drawer of scissors, pens, pencils, and other basic office supplies. Nagisa quickly grabbed what he was looking for, turned his back on his bewildered boyfriend, scribbled something down, and whipped around toward Rei in a matter of seconds. The blonde smiled at Rei, attempting innocence, but Rei knew the tiniest details of every one of Nagisa’s expressions. The little sparkle in Nagisa’s eye told Rei that Nagisa was set on a potentially-terrible plan, and Rei was the sole victim.

“Hey, Rei-chan, could you come here for a second?” Nagisa asked in his sweetest voice. Makoto had to stifle a giggle behind his hand, unaware of Nagisa’s plan but also attuned to the fact that Nagisa had a plan that involved Rei.

“Uh, s-sure, but what—”

Poor Rei didn’t have a chance to ponder what his boyfriend could possibly be up to.

As Rei took one step forward, Nagisa grabbed Rei’s hand and dragged him to the very center of their living room, completely interrupting Rin and Nitori’s failed attempt at re-enacting some scene from the newest anime, and turned Rei so that they faced each other and stood about a foot apart.

Nagisa took something from his pocket and stuck it on Rei’s forehead, smiling brightly the entire time. Rei didn’t have time to look at the rather large sticky note, which had MISTLETOE scribbled messily onto it, before Nagisa kissed him in front of everyone. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but the room erupted into chaos. Nagisa was smiling somehow wider than before, holding Rei’s hands in his own; Rin was practically busting a gut laughing, much to Nitori’s horror and concern; Sousuke was facing away and laughing into his palm; Haru was grinning ever-so-slightly; Makoto was hiding his face in secondhand embarrassment behind both of his hands; and Momo was laughing at Rin’s reaction.

**\---**

After everyone settled down and Rei had recovered from his utter embarrassment, which led him to sulk in a corner over how not beautiful the entire ordeal was, more food was served and hours went by before anyone noticed. Rin was able to “steal” a kiss from Nitori under the actual mistletoe soon after Nagisa’s sticky note stunt, which led to more whooping and hollering and Sousuke nearly getting punched after commenting “about damn time.” Everyone enjoyed the little reunion and made plans to have the next party in Australia with Rin and Nitori after the next Olympics.

Once everyone left, Rei got to work cleaning up the decorations and only stopped when Nagisa whined that they should relax after such a tiring day.

Rei finally relented after some pouting from Nagisa, but made Nagisa get ready for bed before they relaxed. They both changed into their pajamas and went through their little nighttime routine, but before Nagisa could literally hop into bed, Rei slipped under their many blankets. Nagisa couldn’t help but smile affectionately at his sleepy boyfriend, who had forgotten to take off his glasses, before joining Rei under the blankets. Rei’s eyes were already closed, but he was smiling, so Nagisa knew he was awake. Nagisa quickly took Rei’s glasses off and set them neatly on Rei’s bedside table before settling back down and burrowing his head against Rei’s chest.

Sighing contently, Rei nuzzled his face in Nagisa’s hair and squeezed his boyfriend tight, whispering “Merry Christmas, Nagisa-kun” before giving way to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Come fangirl with me over how amazing reigisa is at whispering-music.tumblr.com


End file.
